You’re probably aware that LinkedIn is a marketing tool, but you may not realize how valuable a tool it can be for your business. Sure, you can use it as a sort of directory to show your contacts what you do, but you can also use LinkedIn to actually market your business to potential clients.
Even if you have a small network of connections, the way LinkedIn works is that your connections have connections and therefore they can sing your praises to their friends. Think of it as a free referral program. But that’s a passive way to use it to drum up business – there are also active ways to give your business a LinkedIn presence and drive more potential customers to your page.
Create a LinkedIn Page
Your personal page is great for general talk about your business, but if you want the greatest impact, create a LinkedIn page for your contracting business. Think of it as a mini website for your company. You’ll want to include all the pertinent information such as the business’s name, address, phone number and email address, a brief history about the company, the services you offer and other tidbits of information you want to share. A brief bio about yourself and any other upper management staff is ideal as well.
Start Blogging
Your LinkedIn account comes with a blog, so it’s a great idea to start making posts about your company. You don’t have to be a great wordsmith, just share what’s going on with your company? Did you recently serve your 100th or 500th customer? That’s blog worthy, brag about it! Did you complete a project in which you are especially proud? Highlight this on the blog. Do you have employees of the week or month? Write about them. And don’t forget the pictures. In this case, they truly are worth a thousand words.
Send Frequent Updates
You can’t create your LinkedIn page and then never visit again. Matter of fact, even a daily blog post isn’t enough to gain traction (though it’s certainly better than no activity at all). If you post eight to ten times a day, your page will really be effective. Like the blog posts, these updates don’t have to be lengthy or spectacular. You could start off with a post about the projects you’re working on that day and provide status reports. If you got a great deal on something, share what the deal was and give a shout out to the business that helped you out.
SEO is Your Friend
You want to optimize your page so it shows up in search engines. It might sound intimidating, but really, just choose keywords that apply to your business (including your business name) and add them to our subject heading for your daily posts, the title of your blog’s posts and in the first couple of sentences.
Show Off Your Work
Make sure you have a healthy and attractive portfolio of finished work on your LinkedIn page. Before and after pics are especially appealing to people. As with the blog posts, a picture is worth a thousand words and can quickly convince someone to contact you if they like what they see.
These are a few ways LinkedIn can help you market your business. If you’re interested or want more advice, check out the LinkedIn Small Business section.